Finding a spot, forward planning and avoiding the darkness

[LeftyRighty]

Afternoon all,

I've been out looking for a spot to build a claim; I've got a few skills and humours up and I've moved away from where the guides dropped me and headed out past the edge of the old world map (someone told me they'd expanded the game area so i boldly went... that way!).

Having read up on a few things on the wiki/forums/youtube I've been trying to find a spot with good mix of local biomes and resources but I'm not finding anything remotely like a lime quarry... is it possible to get lime without a quarry nearby when you pick a spot? or are there activities that don't require lime? (tanning and smelting appear to be out, what else am i limiting with no lime supply?). Also can you get by without having access to all the biomes? for example not being anywhere near a coniferous forest or a swamp...?

Lastly, I got a popup the first time I wandered into the darkness, but it doesn't really explain where the darkness is placed, or give any sign when you're in it once that popup is dismissed (other than your humours start dropping which is concealed when using a movement mode like wander, had a couple of close calls there!!). It doesn't appear to be a square/circle around the world... so is it a radius from a settlement or something? also is there a setting hidden somewhere (I'm using the ender client) which warns of being in the darkness?

[LeftyRighty]

hmm, lots of view, no replies... I'll try a tl:dr

how can you tell if you are in the darkness (other than stat drain)?

what activities don't have a lime supply requirement?

[TotalyMoo]

how can you tell if you are in the darkness (other than stat drain)?

It's darker than usual.

Seriously though, there's little you can do (or at least not feel handicapped whilst doing) without lime. A good solution if you really can't find a good quarry is to settle in a place that has everything else and then get a "lime-alt" that is settled next to a quarry. You can then use this alt to mine lime, teleport to Boston and give it to your main. A little tedious but it works.

As for darkness, not only is it darker but you find other stuff there.

Fun stuff ;)

[Sevenless]

Only activity requiring an active lime supply is smelting. All others don't need it (no one limes fields unless they have just a couple), or need it in amounts that can be foraged (tanning).

Don't worry about the darkness imo, you'll get a nice big popup window explaining it's the darkness if you find it. And generally speaking it's at the borders of the map, the center is definitely non-darkness. One way to tell how dark an area is is to light a torch, you should see a large contrast if you're deeper in.

[Chiprel]

Darkness is near end of the world (east,west,north and south).

how can you tell if you are in the darkness (other than stat drain)?
its getting darker and darker depends how far you are in (stat drain is getting bigger there too)

Lime quarries are a lot smaller than clay on map so you need to pay more attention to map and im sure you'll find one(or just wander more a bit).

Farming,smelting can be done without lime but its a bit harder then(well smelting is a lot harder but still doable ).

[LeftyRighty]

Don't worry about the darkness imo, you'll get a nice big popup window explaining it's the darkness if you find it. And generally speaking it's at the borders of the map, the center is definitely non-darkness. One way to tell how dark an area is is to light a torch, you should see a large contrast if you're deeper in.

I'll try the torch thing, I didn't notice the general darkening so increasing the the contrast in a small area is most likely going to help I've been skimming along the edge of the darkness since the guides dropped me off really far out from boston to start with and it seemed like a good direction to head...

Thanks for the help